Kin of MH 370 Families Ready to Counsel Relatives of MH 17 Victims

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (R), kneeling next to Dutch ambassador to Ukraine Kees Klompenhouwer, lays a bouquet of flowers as they commemorate victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 outside the Dutch embassy in Kiev July 21, 2014. The downing of the airliner with the loss of nearly 300 lives has sharply escalated the crisis in Ukraine, and may mark a pivotal moment in international efforts to resolve a situation in which separatists in the Russian-speaking east have been fighting government forces since protesters in Kiev forced out a pro-Moscow president and Russia annexed Crimea. /Valentyn Ogirenko
REUTERS

In a noble gesture, some families of the victims on board the missing flight MH370 has come forward to counsel the distraught relatives of those who died on flight MH17 recently, reports the Guardian.

The Malaysian Airlines lost a second Boeing 777 carrying 298 people on July 17 after the plane was hit by a missile near the Ukraine-Russia border. About 4 months ago the MAS Flight MH370 went missing when it was on its way to Beijing.

Painful phase

The paper quoted Jacquita Gonzalez, wife of MH370 flight steward Patrick Francis Gomez was the first to reach out publicly. She said the agony of the victims' kin was understandable and no one deserves to go through what they are going through. She can understand that trauma and the sense of loss they are going through. It is very painful and hard.

According to Gomez, the crash of MH17 became a stark reminder about the non-closure of the missing MH370 with 239 people on board. Gonzalez noted that it was good that the case of MH17 is getting settled and the remains of victims are coming back. They know where the plane is. Now it is all about who was at fault and who did that. In the case of MH 370 things are still in limbo and it needs a closure with the knowledge of what had happened.

Straight Times reports that an old schoolmate of Ahmad Hakimi Hanafi, the co pilot of Malaysia Airlines MH17, recalled him as a very composed person. The old school pal named Senthelnathan is settled in Canada and had known Hakimi since the school days in Penang Free School.

Delay for bodies

Meanwhile Najib Razak, Prime minister of Malaysia has acknowledged that the return of bodies would take some more time than expected due to the forensic testing at Netherlands. Among the 282 passengers died 43 are Malaysians in which 15 are the crew. The repatriation of bodies is being delayed as there is a process of collecting evidence required in building a case.

The pain among the friends and families of the victims is palpable as they will not be able to receive the bodies soon. However, Dutch experts are expediting the process of verifying the remains on the basis of DNA samples collected from the next-of-kin.

A Malaysian crisis team is stationed at Kharkiv to help with the investigation. Six hospital teams have been kept ready in Malaysia to handle the remains when they arrive from Holland.